The use of a mere dozen nuclear weapons ... would be a human catastrophe without parallel. ... Because so few weapons can kill so many people, even far-reaching disarmament proposals would leave us implicated in plans for unprecedented slaughter of innocent people. The sole measure that can free us from this burden is abolition.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the catastrophic potential of nuclear weapons and the necessity for their abolition to prevent mass destruction.
Jonathan Schell's quote highlights the devastating impact that a limited number of nuclear weapons can have on humanity, describing their potential to cause unparalleled human suffering. He argues that proposals for disarmament, while well-intentioned, still leave the world at risk of unimaginable violence. The only true path to eliminate this risk is the complete abolition of nuclear weapons, which would liberate humanity from the fear and moral burden of such destructive capabilities.
In practice
This quote can be used in a speech at a peace rally to highlight the dangers of nuclear warfare.
[A] new generation, innocent of the divisions of the Cold War, this coming-of-age. ... If its members do not feel the urgency to escape the nuclear danger that some of its parents felt, neither has it developed the deep attachment to nuclear arms also often found among their parents, including most of the governing class. ... The call for abolition should therefore be, among other things, a call from an older generation to younger one.
To ask whether the mainstream media has a conservative or liberal bias is like asking whether al-Qaida uses too much oil in their hummus. It's - I think they might use too much oil in their hummus - but it's the wrong question.
Each second we live is a new and unique moment of the universe; a moment that never was before and never will be again.
What seems to us but dim funeral tapers may be heaven's distant lamps.
Quickness is the essence of the war.
The essential self is innocent, and when it tastes its own innocence knows that it lives for ever.
Spiritual seeking means knowing this negative part: that desiring is the root cause of frustration. To desire is to create, of one`s own accord, a shell. Desiring is the world. To be worldly is to desire and to go on desiring, never becoming aware that each desire comes to nothing but frustration. Once you become aware of this, then you do not desire, or your only desire is to know what is.
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